Are 2 in 5 Managers at Your Company Bad Bosses?

2007began with a flurry of articles about bad bosses that were based on a recent Florida State University School of Business study. The authors intended to test the premise: “employees don’t leave their job or company, they leave their boss.”

The authors concluded that “bad bosses” are more prevalent than thought.

Nearly 40% of respondents said their bosses didn’t keep their word and failed to give credit when due. Nearly 25% said bosses talk poorly about them behind their back, invade their privacy, and give them the “silent treatment.”

While alarming enough to grab newsworthy media space, these findings are not totally surprising when viewed in the context of our own experience working with thousands of managers or another 2006 survey in which 50% of executives interviewed, sited new managers and mid level managers as having the most significant skill gaps.

Yet, business leaders should be very concerned when potentially 25-40% of their workers don’t trust the person to whom they report, feel under-valued, or alienated. Whether it’s a bad boss or an ineffective boss, the result is that employees will be at least one of the following:

1. Unengaged
2. Actively disengaged
3. Leaving the company.

Savvy leaders understand that to accomplish their business goals, they need a work force that is fully engaged and committed to the success of their organization. Why that may sound like consultant-speak, here’s some practical data.

In addition, a recent management journal reported that only 29% of US employees are actively engaged in their work. The remaining 71% are, in various degrees, going through the motions. In our recent retention survey, 52% of employees said that the chance of leaving their job voluntarily during the next 12 months was moderately high to almost certain.

Do the math. This is both a tremendous untapped performance reserve that most
companies aren’t taking advantage of and a real attrition risk just as the work force is getting tighter and competition stiffer.

What’s the impact of 10% more engaged employee?

Case studies show that engaged workers are:
- 25% more productive than un-engaged.
- 3 times more confident in their ability to positively impact quality, customer service, and cost.

Tapping Latent Performance

While there are key organizational, systemic, and cultural factors that impact employee engagement, the preponderance of empirical data is clear that factors controlled by an employee’s manager have the greatest impact. Given this, the first step to increasing employee engagement for many companies begins with focusing on individual manager practices.
LSA’s approach to increasing employee engagement and retention centers on 6 factors, substantiated through indepth research and on going data collection, that account for higher levels of employee engagement and retention:

1. Recruiting & Hiring: Employee is a good company fit and understood job expectations when hired.

2. Achievement: Managers take responsibility for employee success: use employee strengths & provide needed resources.

3. Learning & Professional Growth: Proactive employee development addressing both intrinsic motivators and business needs.

4. Recognition: Manager and company recognition of employee’s contribution and value.

5. Career Development: Proactively promoting and guiding employees’ careers steps.

6. Collaboration: Employee’s coworkers are collaborative and contribute equally to group performance.

These factors have been translated into actionable management practices for managers to use and a corresponding online assessment that provides managers feedback on their key strengths and weakness in applying these best practices.

In our highly networked society, departing employees do not want to burn bridges. It is not uncommon for managers to be unaware that their behaviors were the key contribution to an employee’s departure. Accordingly, managers need to be educated about the role they play and the impact their behaviors have on engaging and retaining employees.

Conclusion

Typically, companies begin the process by having managers’ direct reports provide feedback that allows him/her to see where their behavior contributes to low or high levels of engagement or turnover. Managers then attend an action-learning workshop where they:

1. Review and learn a best practice model for employee engagement/retention.
2. Analyze anonymous direct assessment feedback.
3. Learn to use tools and create focused engagement/retention strategies for their departments, teams, and direct reports.

After the workshop, managers are provided with additional development focused on effectively communicating and coaching employees. These are critical skills needed to build a strong, mutually beneficial working relationship.

The engagement/retention assessment is then used to annually track progress and ensure that practices are effectively applied and producing identified results.

Call us to learn more about how LSA can help you implement an engagement/retention strategy.